F 545 
N47 

o P y l HISTORY 



DISCOVERY 



CALIFORNIA 

OF A 

Native Silk Worm 

Prof. Joseph v Neumann. 



WOODWARD &. CO , PRINT, 522 CAL, ST , S. F. 



I v ; :n? a h<& ...) 



HISTORY • 

OF THE 

DISCOVERY 

IN 

CALIFORNIA 

OF A 

Native Silk Worm 



Prof. Joseph Neum, 



WOODWARD & CO , PRINT, 522 CAL, ST , S, F. 



V 



SF545' 



Entered according to Act of Congress, October nth, 
1887, in the Office of the Librarian, at Washington. 



\7 



PREFACE. 



Coming in contact with various classes 
of people and talking over matters of 
seri-culture with them, I came to the 
conclusion ' that verbal information is 
more expensive than written. Consid- 
ering, first, the strain upon the vocal 
organs; second, the time consumed in 
debating; and principally, that most of 
the listeners are not quick to compre- 
hend, it is better to have it in a printed 
form, as any one can then read it at 
leisure, and make a thorough study upon 
the subject, moreso, as the following 
items involve a matter in which the 
people of the United States and of the 
world at large are concerned. 



SILK CULTURE 



In my struggle to establish silk cul- 
ture in California, my name became 
widely known, particularly through my 
presentation to the National Govern- 
ment, on the 1 2th of July, 1870, of a 
silk flag of California production and 
my own manufacture, which flag was 
recognized by the U. S. Senate as the 
first American production, and on 
April 25th, 1884, it was ordered to be 
placed for exhibition and preservation 
at the Smithsonian Institute in Wash- 
ington, D. C; and also through my ex- 
hibits at the Vienna Exposition, in 
Austria, in 1873, tne Centennial Expo- 
sition in Philadelphia in 1876, and 
various minor exhibitions. 

In the fall of 1884, a nephew of 
mine by the name of Julius S. Arn- 
heim, a naturalist and curio-seeker, 



brought to me about six worms, request- 
ing me to investigate them and see to 
what species they belonged, and at the 
same time informing me where he had 
found them, and upon what plant they 
fed. By feeding the worms until they 
matured and were ready to spin, I 
found them spinning a silk cocoon 
which was well known to me as be- 
longing to the Bombyx family of the 
Mori Juma May species. In the spring 
of 1885, the moths appeared, but it was 
very difficult to obtain eggs for repro- 
duction as they could not very easily be 
paired. In the fall of the same year, I 
found a number of w r orms which I took 
home and fed until they spun. In the 
spring of 1886, being then absent in 
Washington, my children tried to pro- 
pagate the eggs, and met with the same 
result. Returning in August of the 
same year, I again searched for the 



worms, and was rewarded by finding 
a number of them. In the fall they 
spun cocoons, which I had in Wash- 
ington, during my exhibit in Congress- 
ional Hotel at Capitol Hill, and in 
March, 1887, the moths appeared. 
Having had more leisure time, I suc- 
ceeded in propagating them, and have 
to show for my success the present crop 
of live cocoons. 

Encouraged by this, I have made 
further examinations of both the food- 
plant and worm. Studying up the sub 
ject of the multiplication of the worm, 
I found that the moth lays about 200 
eggs. Becoming more enthusiastic 
upon the subject, I determined to makt' 
the matter public. While in Sonoma 
City feeding the silk worms of the mul- 
berry species, I had the wild worms 
with me also. They attracted the atten- 
tion of Dr. L. B. Lawrence, who recog- 



7 

j nized in the food-plant the bark of what 
is known in the medical world as the 
cascara sagrada, a Spanish name mean- 

] ing " The Sacred Bark " which is used 
as a laxative and tonic. 

My first public exhibition of the same 
at the 9th Industrial Exhibition held in 

It Santa Rosa, Sonoma Co., Cal., Aug. 

. 22, 28. While there, numerous farm- 
ers from the vicinity were astonished at 

I the sight of the wild worm feeding on 

< this plant, and all stated that the plant 

1 grew in abundance on their ranches, 
but not knowing what it was, many of 
them had uprooted the same for fear of 

1 poison. All the farmers on the hill 
lands had found worms as well as co- 
coons, but had destroyed them. During 
the exhibition, I learned that the food- 
plant possessed another beneficial qual- 
ity, namely, a cure for poison oak. 
One of the farmers told me that his 



8 



brother who is with him, became so af- 
fected by the poison oak which grew in 
abundance on his land, that he could 
hardly move. An Indian told him to 
make a tea from the food-plant, and to 
wash with it until cured, which was done. 
In my search for wild worms, I can not 
very well prevent myself from getting 
poisoned, especially as the food plant, 
the wild blackberry, and the poison oak, 
grow side by side and so I have made 
use of the advice and am convinced of 
its curative properties. Here we have 
a true illustration of the old proverb, 
that the remedy grows alongside of the 
evil. I recommend the same for the 
public welfare, and am only sorry to 
say that when the gentleman told me 
about it, my stand was so crowded with 
people that I neglected to ask his name. 
My second public exhibition of the 
same is now at the 22nd Industrial Ex- 






hibition of the Mechanics' Institute in 
San Francisco. I will here state that 
the food-plant is variously known as the 
Rhamnus Californicus, cascara sagrada, 
and wild coffee plant. A gentleman 
examined my exhibit, and finding the 
silkworm feeding upon the coffee plant, 
informed me that he had experimented 
grafting the same with the genuine Mex- 
ican coffee plant, and was successful in 
obtaining good coffee. The gentle- 
man's name is James Bixby of Chinese 
Camp, Tuolumne Co., Cal. Here it 
can be seen that the plant was almost 
unknown until the discovery of the 
wild silkworm; consequently, the world 
is indebted to the worm for information 
in regard to the qualities of its food- 
plant. 

I will not speak upon the nature of 
the silkworm and its product, and the 
possibility of its further advancement. 



IO 



The discovery of the wild silkworm on 
the Pacific Coast is by no means a new 
one. It was known to the silk world 
for centuries, that there were several 
species of the silk worm which fed upon 
the atlantis tree, the live oak and oth- 
ers. The wild coffee species was not 
known until the present. 

As it is well known that the mulber- 
ry species represents a large commercial 
interest, the question arises in the mer- 
cantile world, why the wild species has 
not been brought forward as an article 
of commerce? The reason why the 
product of the wild cocoon all over the 
globe, with the exception of China, has 
not been brought forward on any com- 
mercial scale, is simply the following: 
the moths, which emerge from their 
cocoons in the spring, deposit their eggs 
on the newly sprouted leaves; the spring 
may set in early, and a late frost coming 









1 1 

destroys the vitality of the eggs; or, they 
may be destroyed by such climatic dis- 
turbances, as rain, hail, lightning, etc. 
However, there are always some left to 
tell the tale, just as a person who is 
saved from a shipwreck. But it is differ- 
ent in California, where neither rain nor 
thunder-storms are to be feared from 
the time that the moth emerges from the 
cocoon and the eggs are hatched. 

As the plant upon which the worm 
feeds is an evergreen and grows upon 
the hills all over our State (which is 
about 750 miles in length by 250 
miles in width), and as the worm takes 
care of itself in the open air, thus re- 
quiring no labor, imagine the quantity 
of silk cocoons that can be produced 
with very little expense, if all these 
shrubs were stocked with the native 
worm. 

The fiber of the wild cocoon is by far 



12 

stronger than the one from the mulberry 
species. The question of the long or 
short fiber, i. e., reeled or spun silk, of 
the cocoons will be answered at a later 
day by the manufacturers of raw silks, 
as some of the same species of cocoons, 
imported from China, are used in 
France. 

I do not say too much when I claim 
that when our hilly and rocky lands, 
which to-day would not bring one dol- 
lar an acre, will be cultivated with the 
wild coffee plant, and made to produce 
from $25 to $150 per acre, it will cre- 
ate a great boom in every part of our 
glorious State, and for the benefit of all 
the inhabitants thereof. 

Joseph Neumann, 

Author. 

San Francisco, Sept. 30th, 1887. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 






